Can't say I have much sympathy for the larger corporations earning $$$ off of others aspirations, and then limiting those same people to a mere pittance of trickling income. What angers me most is the false promises (marketing hyperbole) built to lure those with limited cash-flow to get their stuff out there with everyone else. Have a beautiful site! It's easy! But wait, you can't sell your stuff... you can't get rid of our stuff... etc. I know free is not free, but I'm am still not aware of how bad or good these services may be for authors.

But there is always a flip side. Not only does this hurt the author/professional just starting out, but it hurts designer/developers too. Questions are thrown out; Why would I pay you that much, when I can go get one for free? How hard can it possibly be? My cousin's, second wife's, nephew says he can do it in a weekend! The author doesn't get what he wanted or needed, simply what he paid for. The developer/designer then has to keep going after bigger fish in order to eat more than hot dogs and packaged noodles for the month.

So how do you balance it out? How does everyone make a living doing what they love?

You let go of the bottom-line temporarily. You ask yourself, how can I help while struggling myself? We all want to earn a living doing what we love. So do what you love. Help others by doing what you love. The key here, for me, is not in selling promises and products full of hope, but by making everything accessible. As I grow, my clients grow. As I provide better products and services that help others, others in turn will help me.

This may be by recommending my services to others who have a larger budget. Maybe after they are up and running they use my more advanced products to keep growing or maybe a friend of a friend buys my products for another starving artist and helps them get there stuff out there.

We are almost there! The site is up and 'mostly' running. A few kinks left to work out before we start heading out to seek other writers wanting a fun, community driven place to hang out in the wee hours!
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feeling happy

Okay, made a random test blog post to see how things work in that regard. Good news is I was able to edit it. Bad news is that if more than a few dozeOkay, made a random test blog post to see how things work in that regard. Good news is I was able to edit it. Bad news is that if more than a few dozen people join the site, you guys having to review and approve every single blog post, and every single edit of every blog post, will probably constitute a full time job for multiple people on your end. While the delays simultaneously drive all the site users crazy. (Ditto if that's the case for articles, etc.) More ...

Weird but interesting hybrid of the usual way of doing things. (All or nothing.) Of course it will be nice if the site doesn't just become a spam seweWeird but interesting hybrid of the usual way of doing things. (All or nothing.) Of course it will be nice if the site doesn't just become a spam sewer! ^_^ More ...